Remembering 'No Scrubs': 'Guys Were Adamant About Not Being a Scrub'

An oral history.

Fourteen years ago today, TLC's "No Scrubs" hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and immortalized lame men who ride shotgun everywhere. The first single off Fan Mail won a Grammy and stayed at the top of the chart for four weeks in 1999. We recently talked to Rozonda Thomas, better known to the world as Chilli, and star of VH1's What Chilli Wants, about the song's making and life on the road with TLC, whose TV biopic is due this summer.

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Kandi Buruss from Xscape wrote the song. I changed up a couple words, but for the most part it was ready. I just needed to jump on and sing it.

Being in a studio is very time-consuming. Sometimes you can't even finish a song and your voice gets tired. But with this particular one, I just knocked it out.

I think the song came out first, and I just remember radio took off with it. We heard it all the time. It was one of those songs that's so catchy, you'd find yourself singing it when it wasn't even on.

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We were really shocked that it stayed number one as long as it did, and that it broke the "My Heart Will Go On" record as far as airplay. I loved that song, too, and I was like, "What did we do?"

A lot of guys would hate on "No Scrubs" just because of what it was saying. I could be walking in the mall and hear, "Chilli, I ain't a scrub. I ain't no scrub!" Girls telling me, "I don't want no scrub, either." It was like the girlfriend song, for real. Guys were truly adamant about not being a scrub. I think deep down they really liked it and jammed to it in secret.

The video was fun, but a little difficult. When I had to get on that swing — that swing was so tall and wide. I was very intimidated when I walked on set. I had to practice a little bit before shooting because I'm afraid of heights.

The part at the end where you see us performing together and doing karate chops or whatever was actually us moving in a circle, so we couldn't stand still. We had to keep moving, so we wouldn't fall. Lisa ["Left Eye" Lopes] got a little too excited about karate chopping us, and I got kicked. Tionne [Watkins] kind of got hurt, but it was nothing a little Neosporin couldn't help. Lisa's rap in that scene is my absolute favorite. When she has on the blue gear, she looks like an action hero or something.

Lisa was trying to juggle her own thing with our stuff and Tionne was like, "This is not the time." So we had that kind of stuff on the road. Drama. She wanted to do a solo project, and we totally supported her. It's just that her timing was a little off because we had a job to finish.

Being on the road is sort of not fun. The best part for me is being on stage. You don't get to see the different cities and states that you visit unless you have, like, two days there. That tour bus — that's your crib. You have, like, 1,000 different movies, you're eating well and sleeping 'til you get to the next spot. Then it's back into the routine. My son [Tron Austin] was always with me. I would bring him to the studio sometimes when I didn't have the crazy hours. After that, we were on the road. He was packed up and hanging with mommy.

I remember Prince introduced us at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards and said we were his favorite group, and that's huge for someone like him to say. We didn't know he was going to introduce us, either. At the show, we put our spin on "Too Much Booty in the Pants," and 'N Sync was there watching. I think on an award show after, they copied us. They had a remix of something with one of those booty-shaking contests. I wanted to beat up all those boys.

The only thing I got tired of was guys telling me they weren't scrubs. Even to this day, all these years later, I can run into a fan who will say he's not a scrub. I'm like, "Wow, okay."

I think with us, because we're so humble, we're just happy about any type of success that we have. Yes, we were truly blessed with CrazySexyCool. Even the first album did well. But Fan Mail did something crazy. "No Scrubs" ... We just couldn't believe it. We were always on a high with it. We were thankful that we were even able to stumble across a hit like that. It's a girl anthem.